


Waking Dreams

by Avierra



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-06
Updated: 2015-06-06
Packaged: 2018-04-03 02:19:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4082929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avierra/pseuds/Avierra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For the Weiss vs Saiyuki 2015 Battle; Battle 2 Espionage theme</p>
    </blockquote>





	Waking Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> For the Weiss vs Saiyuki 2015 Battle; Battle 2 Espionage theme

**Fandom:** Saiyuki  
**Title: Waking Dreams**  
Author/Artist: Avierra ****  
Warnings: nah, except cussing  
**Pairing(s):** minor hints, but mostly gen  
**Notes: Espionage Challenge; Points for Gojyo**

The first hint of a problem comes when Sanzo propels a small, struggling figure in front him, his hand gripping hard on the back of its neck. He frog marches whoever it is and plonks him or her hard in a chair immediately opposite Hakkai and Gojyo.

“Tch.” Sanzo grabs the local newspaper, which no one except him cares about, from the table on which they’d been playing cards; and Hakkai’s freshly brewed pot of tea, which they do. “This shit is way below my pay grade. _You_ assholes deal with it. Be ready to leave at seven tomorrow.” He glares at the three of them, ignoring his prisoner, and slams out of the room, the scent of jasmine tea wafting after him.

Hakkai laughs as he watches his tea exit the room, and it’s his “I am so very disappointed in you” laugh, so they’ll all be wearing starched underwear and eating overly-salty food later because of Sanzo’s dickery. Gojyo pops the tab on a can of beer and hands it to him as a stop-gap, but it’s obviously in no way a replacement for Hakkai’s precious tea.

Not that they aren’t all a little short-tempered, although some of them are a trifle more waspish than usual. The last few days have been very bad, the people on their journey traumatized and terrorized. They’ve seen a _lot_ of unburied bodies, both human and youkai. There’s been a lot of fighting around here—the area has been thoroughly ravaged-- and they’d been fortunate to find this hamlet with a more or less functional inn. Such as it is.

And, well, the days have been bad, but on top of that, they’ve all had trouble sleeping. It’s had the unfortunate effect of making them all a little on edge.

The three of them turn and regard the ragged, huddled figure on the chair.

“You’re kind of crap at this spy thing,” Gojyo observes dispassionately after a long, long moment. He isn’t sure even where to begin to sort out this clusterfuck.

“Not really,” mutters the figure, and for a second Gojyo has a flashback of himself at that age, running through the streets of Chang’an with Banri’s gang of thugs. This kid is a little younger than he was then, maybe fifteen or sixteen. Except it’s a girl, and she’s clearly frightened half to death—face very pale, eyes too wide-- and trying to bravado her way out of her problems. And for a second he wants to smile in sympathy, but doing that would be wrong, so he adopts a stern expression instead.

“Well, we did catch you,” he points out. “And you’re sitting in that chair in front of a bunch of people that need to decide what to do about you.”

“Indeed. Completely leaving aside any traditional methods of dealing with spies.” Hakkai is clearly feeling a bit pissy, but on the one hand Gojyo doesn’t think they should put executing a teenager on the table simply because Sanzo’s stalked off with Hakkai’s tea. On the other hand, if Hakkai wants to play bad cop, there’s not much Gojyo can do to stop him. But on the third hand, maybe a bit of a reality check is what this kid needs.

“Guys, I’m not sure…” Goku begins. Always a soft-touch for a damsel in distress, Gojyo thinks fondly.

“But I haven’t done anything wrong!” the kid bursts out, cutting Goku off in mid-knight-errantry, voice wobbling, all her pitiful defiance shredding like so much wet cardboard. Gojyo remembers how that feels, too. She turns so pale that Gojyo worries for a second that she might faint.

But more importantly than all that, they need to figure out what exactly she’s been up to. It’s not as if who they are or what they’re doing is unknown—they certainly aren’t particularly known for their subtle approach-- but there’s no reason to paint a bull’s eye on themselves or the people around them either.

“Glad to hear it,” Gojyo offers. “So I guess you can explain why you’re creeping around in our room in the middle of the night.” He’s starting to feel a little bad for her too, especially when her dark eyes start welling. She dashes a furious hand across her cheek and resumes scowling at the three of them.

She draws a deep breath and tries to concentrate. “Why are you doing this?” Her voice wavers.

Gojyo raises an eyebrow. “Seriously? You’re the one who’s been breaking in here, spying on us. You tell us.”

“You shouldn’t even have known I was here!”

“Interesting. Why ever not?” Hakkai’s voice at least doesn’t have the edge to it anymore. He actually sounds interested, and Gojyo tries to follow along.

“I’m invisible. At least. Until, you know, tonight.” She sighs, and wraps her arms around herself a little more tightly.

“Interesting,” Hakkai says again. “So why _are_ you here?”

Her eyes stray to the window. It’s the deep of night, and no moon to see by, but she’s staring at something far, far away.

“Ma’s gone, dad’s gone. I was hungry,” she says simply.

Goku perks up at that. “Yeah? The food here good?”

Hakkai raises a finger, and Goku subsides. “What sort of youkai are you? Did you come here to… eat the inhabitants of this village?”

The girl looks horrified. “No! Oh my god! I wouldn’t—I would never-- I don’t eat—That’s _disgusting_!”

“Hmm,” says Hakkai. He doesn’t bother pointing out that most youkai don’t share her sentiments, which is readily apparent at this point from the ruination around them.

“I don’t eat people,” she says again, sharply. She glares at Hakkai, and the defiance is back, along with a side of anger. Her cheeks are red with outrage, but at least she doesn’t look like she’s going to pass out anymore.

“Okay, so,” begins Gojyo.

“If you’re not here to dine upon anyone, what do you eat?” asks Hakkai, ever practical.

She draws a deep breath and says, “I can help you all. If you let me go.”

She looks at Goku, but it’s almost like she doesn’t even see him. Her voice is a little abstracted. “I know what you want. Your deepest desires. And I can tell you how to get it.”

“Thanks, but nope,” says Goku. His face is scarlet, but his gaze is even and direct, and maybe even a little stern. “I think I can manage things on my own.”

Gojyo snorts, and he nudges Hakkai. “Look honey, our little boy is all grown up,” he grins.

Her gaze shifts to Hakkai, and Gojyo sitting next to him. “Funny you should mention that. I know the dreams you share. I can tell you—”

“You’re very kind,” says Hakkai, cutting her off. Gojyo doesn’t know what dreams the two of them share, but whatever they are, he also has zero desire to hear them spoken out loud.

“Nah. Picking on Goku is kind of a dick move.” Gojyo pulls out a cigarette and lights it up. “Just tell us why you’re here and what you’ve learned. This is getting a little old, if you catch my drift.”

“I think I know. You feed upon dreams… and emotions?” Hakkai asks.

“Nightmares,” she says sullenly. “And sometimes dreams, but we live on nightmares, mostly.”

“Ah, and so that explains why you were drawn to this area,” Hakkai nods.

Gojyo thinks of the ruined, devastated landscape they’d travelled, and abruptly understands. “It’s fucking amazing you aren’t enormous,” he murmurs.

“I _help_ people,” she retorts, her chin in the air. “I take their nightmares and the things they can’t face. I can fight the monsters in the dark, so they don’t suffer.” She slumps. “But yeah, there’s been a lot here. There’s too much; I can’t take it all.”

“So why were you spying on us?” Hakkai looks less than enthralled at the prospect of someone having rummaged around in his head. “I surmise that your presence here is the reason we’ve all had difficulties in sleeping.”

She flushes. “You’re all… Your dreams are… I’ve never seen anything like them.” She flounders a few seconds. “Like those pictures where you see one thing, then you look again and it is something else. And you step back a few feet and look again and it’s something completely different. It was... I couldn’t stop looking. I know, that sounds really stupid.” She pauses. “But I swear I didn’t mean you any harm. And you know, from what I could tell it isn’t like you have any major plans for me to discover.”

“And so, when you were looking more closely at Sanzo, he discovered you?”

She nods. “I was just looking, and then he _grabbed_ me, and I couldn’t change back. I don’t know what to do now. I can’t hide anymore.” The dark eyes well up again.

“Huh. Maybe we could get a message to Kougaiji, have them come get her. This is a bad place for someone on their own,” Goku says.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Hakkai nods approvingly. “Perhaps Yaone-san can help her get back on her feet.”

“Sure, why not,” shrugs Gojyo. “As far as I know nothing we’re doing is particularly secret. We get down the road a bit, somewhere safer and away from here, and--”

The girl’s eyes focus sharply on Gojyo, almost in disapproval.

“Don’t lie. You hate Prince Kougaiji, why would you want to leave me with him?” the kid intones. “You want to feed him his heart.”

Gojyo snorts and doesn’t bother denying it. “Hate’s a pretty strong word, kid. And maybe I do, but it’s just a dream.”

“But why? He’s our prince.” She sounds genuinely confused. Gojyo doesn’t bother pointing out that Kougaiji isn’t _his_ prince at all. For some reason, most youkai seem to have a huge blind spot where that asshole is concerned.

“Eh. Personal reasons. And also _philosophical_ reasons.” Both Hakkai and Goku are staring at him appalled, as if he’s grown another head, but he ignores them. It won’t be the first time they aren’t all on the same page, and there’s no law that says they all have to walk in lockstep.

The kid nods. “I’m really sorry about your brother.”

Gojyo’s actually a bit touched. “Heh. You know, I think you’re the first person who has said that to me.” He hears Hakkai make a sharp sound, as if he’s been punched. “But I guess it was probably good eating for you.” He knows that comes out a little bitter, but he can’t help that. And now he’s probably up for a “discussion” with Hakkai in the near future, but that can’t be helped either.

“I can take it from you, if you like.” She eyes him almost clinically.

“Thanks, but no.” He stands and looks at the other two. “So, we’re all agreed we’ll get down the road a bit and see if we can get word to Yaone to come get her?”

They all nod, and then the girl nods too.

“Thank you,” she says. “My name is Kaguya.” She smiles tentatively, a tiny thing, but real.

“Gojyo. Know how to play cards?”

He deals her in their next hand.


End file.
